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They're very good games if you like Magic but you're not very serious about it

Are they a decent way to learn Magic for a complete noob, as long as you don't have any illusions about ever being a serious player? I have a couple of friends that I could potentially play with one day, but they live far away, so it would be nice to have a way of learning the basics in case we ever do get a chance to meet up.

"Harry uses the One Ring to defeat Magneto and save the Rebellion!"With thanks to RaveTurned in comments on the main page.

Are they a decent way to learn Magic for a complete noob, as long as you don't have any illusions about ever being a serious player? I have a couple of friends that I could potentially play with one day, but they live far away, so it would be nice to have a way of learning the basics in case we ever do get a chance to meet up.

Yes, they'll get you through. The AI is pretty harmless at low levels so you can experiment some, though you'll need to be prepared to work some stuff out for yourself. The game explains the basics of the rules but Magic is built around lots of abilities on lots of cards (even with the game's limited selection) and only experience will make sense of a lot of it.

Are they a decent way to learn Magic for a complete noob, as long as you don't have any illusions about ever being a serious player? I have a couple of friends that I could potentially play with one day, but they live far away, so it would be nice to have a way of learning the basics in case we ever do get a chance to meet up.

I can't be certain, because I knew the basic rules already, but I think it should not be too much trouble to learn the basics from the game. And once you understand the basics there is a brilliant and huge thread on the Duels forum called "Is it supposed to work like this?" in which there will probably be a good explanation for something you see happening that you don't understand.

I can't be certain, because I knew the basic rules already, but I think it should not be too much trouble to learn the basics from the game. And once you understand the basics there is a brilliant and huge thread on the Duels forum called "Is it supposed to work like this?" in which there will probably be a good explanation for something you see happening that you don't understand.

Do any of the DLC add much to the game? I guess I'm looking most interestedly at the straight-up 'Expansion' that's going for $2.50 right now. Is any of the DLC pay-for-shortcut-style stuff that you could otherwise unlock in-game?

I'm having a hard time believing how poor these sales are. It kind of makes me glad I went mad and bought everything I could possibly ever want a year or two ago because now the same things are coming up again, and instead of being cheaper as you'd expect them to get over time they're now actually more expensive. Did a group of publishers stage a 'these huge sales have got to stop' intervention for Gaben or something?

I think they're experimenting, as they tend to do. They know how much more money you make selling at crazy prices, but how do slightly more sensible ones work? Is 66% off more profitable than 75% off?

I also imagine they're seeing sentiments like at the start of this thread that "games will always get cheaper" so there's no point buying if you won't play it before the next sale. They probably want to get rid of that as it's the limited nature of the sales that makes them work.

It's pennies, so it's a silly example, but Terraria is 66% off. I picked it up on a Steam sale for 75% off over a year ago (and the base price hasn't fallen).

Do any of the DLC add much to the game? I guess I'm looking most interestedly at the straight-up 'Expansion' that's going for $2.50 right now. Is any of the DLC pay-for-shortcut-style stuff that you could otherwise unlock in-game?

The two deck packs are also extra decks, though they're probably of questionable value if you're not done with the main game's decks yet. The rest of the DLC is focused on either unlocking cards you get from winning or turning your deck into foils (shiny visual, no game change), though the speed of unlocks is so slow in 2013 that I've been tempted by a couple on decks I struggle with.

I think they're experimenting, as they tend to do. They know how much more money you make selling at crazy prices, but how do slightly more sensible ones work? Is 66% off more profitable than 75% off?

I also imagine they're seeing sentiments like at the start of this thread that "games will always get cheaper" so there's no point buying if you won't play it before the next sale. They probably want to get rid of that as it's the limited nature of the sales that makes them work.

It's pennies, so it's a silly example, but Terraria is 66% off. I picked it up on a Steam sale for 75% off over a year ago (and the base price hasn't fallen).

I think it is more likely Steam uses sales models trained on the volumes and volumes of past sales data that they have. There's a trade-off between discount and price, that is the higher the discount the more people buy it, but the higher the price the more money per sale. It's pretty easy to come up with a fairly accurate model given the amount of data available (it isn't like stock market prediction) and from that one can optimize the trade-off.

Sure there are people who have to OK the final prices, but you can bet their decisions are based on models such as this. I suspect the lower discounts are a reflection of recent sales trends as the economy is better in many places than it was a few years ago.

I think a lot of the disappointment with the recent Steam Sales is based on

1 - they don't engage people with the minigames and achivements and stuff - we all enjoyed that - we bought games as a result - I think it's a mistake not to do it (tho I'm sure it cost them a LOT to do it)

2 - we all own most of the games we want anyway

3 - we got used to 'silly' prices and suddenly a 50% discount is rubbish and even 66% isn't enough (esp when Steam's RRPs tend to be high anyway)

I only want 3 games really - Dark Souls, NFS: MW and Dishonored and I want them for <£10 and I didn't expect Steam/Amazon/Origin to give me that so I'm not really that surprised - despite that I will buy a few indies and odd bits I'm sure - it's not a bad thing, all these sales, you just have to buy what's going cheap instead of the things you really want but won't appear! :)

I'm also wondering if the price competition brought on by the likes of Amazon (and GMG) is playing a role as well: if Steam responded with deeper cuts, it could easily turn into a race for the bottom. So they leave the cost-minimizing rational agents :P to shop on Amazon and GMG (they would anyway) and at the same time extract more value out of standard consumers - you know the kind of people who doesn't compulsively keep track of the lowest price ever or populate deal tracking sites. Everybody wins.

Does anyone have any thoughts on Elven Legacy? The pack is 60 % off at €5.99. It seems to be a decent HoMM/King's Bounty thingy, but I know very little about it.

Elven Legacy is the sequel to Fantasy Wars, a re-imagining of Fantasy General, a fantasy spinoff of Panzer General. The designers then went on to make the 4X game Warlock based on this engine. So if you haven't played any of the General games, imagine something like the warfare of Warlock or Civ 5 (but tactically deeper because no empire-building involved to distract you). It's a reasonable game, nothing earth-shaking, but it tests your skills. It's quite hard, you have very little scope for losing units without ruining the campaign, and the turn limits can be punishing. Don't expect too much strategic AI from the computer, it tends to just sit its units around their prescribed positions until you come upon them, but once you are fighting they certainly know how to make your life miserable.

Elven Legacy is the sequel to Fantasy Wars, a re-imagining of Fantasy General, a fantasy spinoff of Panzer General.

I haven't played Elven Legacy but had fun with Fantasy Wars. I played through about half of the campaigns (all human plus some orc) before drifting off to something else. I definitely enjoyed Warlock more though, as I don't think Fantasy Wars had a skirmish mode, but I could be wrong as it has been a while.